Coca-Cola Brand
In May 1886, a pharmacist called John Pemberton in Atlanta (located in the state of Georgia, USA) created a caramel colored syrup which was christened Coca-Cola (Coke) by his partner Frank M Robinson. Initially, Coca-Cola was sold through a soda fountain wherein customers could buy a glass of drink for five cents. At that time, on an average, nine drinks were sold every day. The caption ‘delicious and refreshing’ was used to promote the brand. As early as the 19th century, the branding strategies of Coca-Cola included celebrity endorsements by music hall performer Hilda Clark.
Some of the advertisements used for branding Coca-Cola became a part of people’s consciousness and events in their lives were shaped around the brand. For example, every year before Christmas an advertisement shows the Christmas trucks and the jingle that says ‘holidays are coming—holidays are coming’. A customer claims: “It isn’t Christmas until I’ve seen that …I have to congratulate Coca-Cola on capturing the festive spirit so well”. In the late 1940s, Coke used the tagline ‘Where there’s Coke there’s hospitality’. At that time, when the world was strife-torn after the Second World War, hospitality was a very sought after virtue. Families aspired to be hospitable and socially well-regarded.
In the 1970s, the hippie culture and individualism was the rage and the Coke ad reflected the ideology through the line ‘I’d like to buy the world a Coke’. The lyrics and the music became very popular and were remembered even after several decades. In the 1980s, the branding was done using the rather pithy statement ‘Coke is it’ which appealed immensely to the teenagers. The 1990s saw the usage of the line ‘Always Coca-Cola’ – perhaps a reflection of the economic recession when people aspired for stability. The new millennium saw a very simplistic approach through ‘Coca-Cola –Enjoy’ which summed up the candid approach people were taking towards life in times when globalization was the norm and people’s work lives and personal lives had become seamless. The culmination of this approach is evident in the line ‘The Coke side of life’ which was created in 2006.
Coca-Cola in India
Coca-Cola was present in India till the late 1970s when a Government Order forced it to leave the Indian market. However, after economic liberalization in the early 1990s, it re-entered the Indian market in 1993. The entry into India was made more emphatic when Coca-Cola acquired the leading Indian soft drink brands – Thums Up, Limca, Gold Spot, etc. Also, by buying out the bottlers, Coca-Cola ensured that they exercised total control over the Indian soft drink market.
Coca-Cola India invested over $1 bn in building new production facilities, waste water treatment plants, developing marketing and distribution systems, etc. The company directly employed over 6,000 people while its operations created indirect employment for more than 1,25,000 people. To ensure enough production and ready availability of its products, Coca-Cola had 25 wholly owned bottling operations in addition to 24 franchisee owned bottling operations. To supplement their efforts, a number of contract packers were used. For effective distribution, apart from the 10-tonne trucks, open-bay three wheelers were used which could easily navigate the narrow lanes that are a part of India’s cities and small towns. Using these strategies,
Coca-Cola ensured high penetration of its products—even in the rural areas. Coca-Cola India has used very modern plants for its operations. Its bottling plant at Kaladera (in Rajasthan) was awarded the Golden Peacock Environment Management Award in 2005 for its world-class environment practices. Previously, its other bottling plants at Baddi (in Himachal Pradesh), Ameenpur (in Andhra Pradesh) and Dasna (in Uttar Pradesh) had been bestowed with the award. To ensure good corporate governance, Coca-Cola India set up the Indian Advisory Board comprising eminent personalities. The board is chaired by Naresh Chandra, the former Indian ambassador to the US. Personalities such as Deepak Parekh, S M Datta, Sunil Munjal, Amjad Ali Khan are presently members of the board.
Brand Positioning Strategies of Coca-Cola in India
When Coca-Cola was re-launched in India, it promoted the brand using advertisements that used communication approaches more suitable for western markets. However, the brand quickly adapted its communication to ensure proper appeal to Indian customers. In the late 1990s Coca-Cola began using Indianized themes to appeal to the Indian customers. It realized that its communication needed to appeal to the youth. Also, Coca-Cola was aware that the Indian youth respected traditional Indian values even if they wore western clothes and listened to western pop music. Taking these aspects into consideration, it created an advertisement showing an Indian college-goer coming home for the Diwali holidays. The young man was clad in trendy clothes (blue jeans and T-shirt) and even sported an ear-stud to signify his contemporary style. He was shown touching the feet of his grandparents while the Diwali fireworks lit up in the background.
This brand communication helped in creating a personality of Coca-Cola that the Indian youth could relate with and it resulted in a suitable positioning for the brand. Coca-Cola also realized that the Indian youth were obsessed with Hindi movie stars and cricketers. Therefore, if these stars could be roped in for the advertisements the connection of the target segment with the brand could be enhanced.